


Wherever You Go (I Will Always Follow)

by Lilsciencequeen



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Minor Angst, Perthshire Cottage, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Survivor Guilt, Valentine's Day, minor fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6003199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While taking a break from S.H.I.E.L.D, FitzSimmons decided to talk about where they are, and where they are going next</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wherever You Go (I Will Always Follow)

**Author's Note:**

> To celebrate Valentine's Day, I've wrote this, it's not exactly sad but it's not exactly happy either. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy.

He found her that morning, curled up in the bed, not waning to do anything besides lie there. He nodded, accepting this. He wouldn't pressure her to do anything that she didn't want to do. As he turned to leave, she whispered one word. "Stay."

He nodded and climbed into the bed beside her, and she instantly curled up next to him.  He stroked her hair, murmuring reassurances to her. They had been in the cottage for little over a month now. Coulson had been reluctant to let them go, had wanted them to stay but Fitz had said that there was no way that she was fit for work. In the months that had followed the events of Maveth, Jemma had been consumed by guilt; for Wills death, for Lash, and all the Inhuman deaths that were happening as a result. And most of all, she felt guilt at the pain that she had caused him. When the aftermath of Maveth was over, and Bobbi had wanted to treat her wounds that Ward had given her. But she was nowhere to be found. It had taken them an hour to find her. She was tucked in the back of a supply closet, in a state of shock. It had taken them a further half an hour to persuade her to come out, to receive the medical treatment that she so required.

But Jemma didn't want, felt that she didn't deserve it. That the injuries were what she had deserved. They only got her out in the end, was by giving her a sedative so that she was more co-operative. It had pained Fitz seeing her in pain, hearing her screams. And the injuries were worse.

Shaking that thought from his mind, he looked down at her now, beginning the period of recovery that she so needed. In that time period before she had came here, she was overworking herself, to the point where she had collapsed most nights in the lab. She claimed that she needed to find Lash, to stop him. That it was her fault that he was killing so many. Fitz had said it wasn't her fault. Daisy had said that it wasn't her fault. May had said it wasn't her fault. Bu that wasn't goof enough for Jemma. She was so far in the mind-set that there was little that could be done to persuade her otherwise.

So Fitz had forced Coulson to let them take this time away. To allow Jemma away from the pressures of S.H.I.E.L.D. and to work out everything between the two of them.

"I'm sorry," Jemma whispered, snapping him out of this thought once again.

"For what?" he asked, brushing a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. It was then he noticed just how full of sadness her eyes were, so unlike what he had fallen in love with all those years ago. Eyes that were so full of curiosity, trying to take in and understand the world around them. But the change hadn't made him love her any less, hadn't made any difference. Because they had both changed, they were both different. They were no longer the people they once were, but they weren't broken. They were never broken. Just different.

"Everything," was the reply that came, a voice quivering.

"Jems, no," he whispered, hoping that this would reassure her but tears had started to snake their way down her face. "You did nothing."

"The Inhumans, Will, Trip," she began, before taken a shaken breath and then, "You."

Fitz would have liked to say that this took him by surprise, but it didn't. If anything, he was expecting it. "Talk to me Jems," he offered, trying a different approach.

"Death," she said, sitting up, so that she was able to look him in the eyes. "Everyone around me ends up dead. Or injured. The Inhumans! How many are dead because of me now?" Her voice was getting more hysterical and Fitz knew that he had to do something. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a closer embrace. She didn't object, even though her entire her body was screaming at her not to return the embrace.

Her arms draped around his shoulders.

Fitz shook his head, rubbing his hand up and down her back, and she allowed that to cement her, bring her back to this world. "Will, Trip. They did everything for me. They saved me and I killed them."

"No," his voice was soft, but stern, trying to enforce this in her mind. He knew that it wouldn't work immediately, but given time, maybe just maybe, she would understand. "Trip would make that choice again and again. It wasn't your fault that he died. Will wanted the best for you."

She had no answer to this. "I left," she began, tried to settle her breathing and then tried again. "I left for HYDRA because I was making you worse."

For whatever reason, Fitz had not been expecting this to be the reason why she left all of those months ago. "No, no, you weren't."

There was movement at his shoulder, her head shaking. "No matter what I did, I made you worse. You weren't recovering. I had to, I had to, I had to," she muttered again and again before the sobs took over and all he could do was murmur reassurances into her hair.

After a time period, of how long Fitz didn't know, Jemma pulled away, and looked at him. "I love you," she whispered and he nodded, looking down at her. Knowing that this was genuine. Knowing that this was her admitting what she had known all these years, but had been unable to speak about. Ever since his return from the planet, he realised and came to understand that yes, she did have feelings for Will and he couldn't change that. But her feelings for Will were different from his, they were born out of the fact that it was just the two of them. But Maveth, as Will, had said that Jemma loved him, that her feelings for the engineer were genuine.

He didn't have a chance to say out loud what he had wanted to say for so long, as her hand was now buried in his curls and her lips were dancing tenderly across his, the faint taste of cherry still present from her lip gloss.

"I love you, too," he whispered back.

***

It was early the next morning, Valentine's morning, that Jemma had her head resting upon his chest, his fingers dancing through her hair while she fought everything to keep her eyes open. "I might not go back," she finally said, breaking the prolonged silence that had settled around them. "To S.H.I.E.L.D. I mean."

"Where would you go?" he asked, "Home?"

"No. I don't think... I don't think I'm ready to face my parents. Not like this."

"They won't care Jems."

"I know... I just... I can't."

He didn't press the issues, knowing that Jemma would do what she wanted, when she felt comfortable.

"I might stay here," she whispered, glancing out the window at the early morning light that was starting to creep across in the garden, belonging to the cottage that Jemma had fallen in love with, in Perthshire, all those years ago.

"Then I'll stay with you."

"Why?" she asked, doubt and guilt starting to swim in her mind again. "Why?"

"What would be left for me without you?"

"Everything. A job, a chance to do what you love, a chance to change the world."

"I don't want any of that. Plus, that means nothing to me, when everything I care about is right here," he replied, placing a kiss on her forehead.

She rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see. "Stop being so... so..." It took her a moment to find the word. "Adorable."

He laughed, before shifting and climbing out of the bed. "I'll be back."

"Where you..." she started, not needing to finish, not for him.

"Cookies."

She raised an eyebrow. "Cookies? In bed? What about crumbs?"

"Sure we can use my bed?"

She gave both a laugh and a smile at this, both so genuine that it made his heart ache with joy. Those were two things that he had waited so long to see again, and now that he had... "Are you expecting me, Leopold Fitz, to believe that you do not eat in bed?"

He gave a shrug, and a smug smile before quickly heading down to the kitchen.

Upon his return, he found an extremely sleepy Jemma, who when he crawled into bed next to her, simply curled up next to him and let her eyes flutter shut on last time.

Maybe, she thought as she was drifting of, just maybe it wasn't her fault.

Maybe all that blood wasn't on her hands.

And maybe, just maybe, one day she would come to accept that and make peace with everything.

Fitz, meanwhile, after finishing his third cookie, wrapped his arm around her, vowing to protect her from everything. Vowing to keep her safe.

Vowing to always be there for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed this and Marvel owns all.


End file.
